Mayor Kasim Reed said Monday the city has most of the tools it needs to mobilize security should Atlanta face a bombing attack like the ones in New York and Jersey this past weekend.
But he warned that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for officials to be able to head off efforts to do harm before they happen.
“You do everything that you can, but you know that in a lone-wolf environment … that our ability to prevent all things from happening is reduced, but we just have to be vigilant,” he said.
What's missing, he said, is an emergency response facility in downtown.
“We need a location in the center of our city that can access all of the city in a very rapid fashion,” he said.
Police on Monday arrested Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, in connection with the attacks in Manhattan and Seaside Park, N.J., according to reports.
Reed said Atlanta Police Chief George Turner is maintaining close contact with FBI and other authorities to monitor the situation and the city’s security.
Atlanta has increased its inventory of surveillance cameras to about 7,500, doubled the size of the city’s SWAT team and is trying to add another 100 police officers to the roughly 1,900-Atlanta Police Department, Reed said.
“As you have seen in New York, video surveillance is a key part in both keeping New York safe and working to prevent the kinds of incidents that we have seen,” he said.
Reed added: “We are running significant police overtime right now.”
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